The Bitcoin (BTC) bull run may be dominating headlines, but the stalwart cryptocurrency isn’t the only coin to be showing strong positive indicators.
According to data from glassnode alerts, the number of Ether (ETH) wallet addresses holding a minimum of 1 ETH hit an all-time high on Nov. 19:
#Ethereum $ETH Number of Addresses Holding 1+ coins just reached an ATH of 1,170,598
Previous ATH of 1,170,508 was observed earlier today
View metric:https://t.co/IuKpD48IXd pic.twitter.com/jOvadjvSgK
— glassnode alerts (@glassnodealerts) November 19, 2020
As of press time, Ether is trading at over $500, continuing a strong upward trend that kicked off at the beginning of November.
It’s worth noting that individual users can create multiple wallet addresses, meaning that the 1.17 million figure doesn’t necessarily map 1:1 to the number of users or entities.
As well as reflecting the bullish sentiment in the market more broadly, the high number of Ether holders could reflect two further factors. First, the popularity of decentralized finance, or DeFi, and associated tokens that use the Ethereum network. While the value of many of these individual tokens has taken a beating relative to their earlier bull runs, the total dollar value locked in DeFi remains at a strong $14.05 billion as of publishing time.
In addition to this, the current launch date for ETH 2.0 Phase O is currently set for Dec. 1, and Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has been encouraging the community that they can expect major improvements on the scaling and network development front.
As Cryptox’s market analysts reported earlier today, Ether’s current price represents a two-and-a-half-year high, bring the coin to an overall outperformance of Bitcoin in 2020.